Tickets can be used as a means for exchange of goods and/or services. For example, amusement parks, theaters, and other public entertainment places can use tickets to ensure that customers have paid an admission fee before making use of the entertainment services. In other fields such as public transportation, tickets can provide a similar service.
Another field in which tickets and ticket dispensers are frequently used is the field of arcade games. Players of arcade games can win redemption tickets based on a final score or one or more achieved goals. The redemption tickets can then be redeemed for prizes offered at the arcade.
In a typical redemption-type arcade game, a ticket dispenser is positioned at a front panel or front area of a game unit, where players have easy access to dispensed tickets. Generally, a supply such as a fan fold of tickets is stored in a cache or compartment near the ticket dispenser within a game unit. The tickets are routed from the supply, through the dispensing mechanism, and through a front slot in the game unit out of which the tickets are dispensed. The dispensing mechanism may include one or more motor-driven rollers that move the strip of tickets. The operator of the game replaces the tickets when needed.
A problem with prior art redemption tickets is that the tickets are made of a heavy paper stock and are thus somewhat thick. This is not a problem in non-game uses of the tickets, since the tickets often need to be durable for handling purposes. In addition, for non-game uses, the ticket should be large enough that information can be printed on each ticket or on multiple tickets. These tickets are then suitable for random drawings and the like, and a ticket distributor can keep track of the numbers of tickets dispensed.
The same thick, larger-sized tickets were naturally brought over to redemption-type arcade games. However, this type of ticket has become inadequate for redemption-type game uses due to the evolution of arcade games. More specifically, additional features have been added to redemption arcade games, such as progressive bonus features. Such features require dispensing large amounts of tickets. For example, an arcade game unit including a progressive bonus feature can accumulate and then dispense a ticket award of 1000 or more tickets.
However, only a certain number of tickets may be stored at one time in the ticket supply space in a game unit, and that number clearly depends on the thickness of the tickets. Thicker tickets obviously reduce the number of tickets that can be stored in the dispenser, requires refreshing the dispenser more often, and limits the maximum number of tickets that can be conveniently awarded at a game unit without having to personally involve a game operator. In addition, highly accurate scales are now available to count large numbers of tickets. Previously, tickets needed to be thick to make ticket counting by hand easier. However, the new scales and other counting devices eliminate the need for manual counting and thus the need for thicker tickets.
Thus, what is desired is an apparatus and method to quickly, cheaply and easily make thinner tickets out of common and relatively inexpensive materials.
The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for creating thin strips of perforated tickets. The tickets are made from common and inexpensive starting materials. The apparatus and method are suited to quickly and inexpensively make large numbers of thin tickets.
An apparatus for making tickets according to the present invention includes a housing with an opening through which completed tickets can be removed, and preferably a reservoir for a supply of a continuous flexible material. Attached to the housing is a perforating assembly including a generally cylindrical perforator rotatably coupled to the housing and a cylindrical platen also rotatably coupled to the housing. The perforator is provided with a plurality of perforating knives positioned so as to make lateral perforations in the flexible material. The platen is positioned proximate to the perforator so that the material is pinched between the perforator and the platen. The apparatus also includes a feed mechanism configured to feed the flexible material from the reservoir and through the perforating assembly.
Preferably, the continuous flexible material has first and second edges and includes a plurality of longitudinally spaced tractor holes proximate to each edge, for example fan-folded computer paper. A preferred feed mechanism engages the longitudinally spaced tractor holes of the material with a plurality of tractor feed pins configured to engage the tractor holes. The tractor feed pins can be arranged, for example, circumferencially around the platen proximate to the perforator.
Pre-folded flexible material as-provided typically includes a plurality of pre-existing lateral perforations coinciding with the folds that divide the flexible material into a plurality of sections. Each section has, therefore, essentially the same length. The section length is defined as the distance between adjacent pre-existing lateral perforations/folds. To accommodate such material, the perforator can have a circumference substantially equal to the section length and include a blank space. Further, the perforator can be synchronized with the flexible material. In this way, with each revolution of the perforator the blank space contacts a pre-existing perforation. In other embodiments the circumference of the perforator can be substantially equal to an integer multiple of the section length. In these embodiments the perforator can include the same integer number of blank spaces spaced substantially equally around the perforator with perforating knives disposed between them. The perforator can then be synchronized with the flexible material so that each of the integer number of blank spaces contacts a pre-existing perforation with each revolution of the perforator.
The apparatus may also include a slicing assembly comprising a generally cylindrical slicer and a generally cylindrical second platen set proximate to one another so that the flexible material is pinched between them. Both the slicer and the second platen are rotatably coupled to the housing. The slicer includes at least one slicer blade positioned circumferencially around the slicer so as to make at least one substantially continuous longitudinal slice in the flexible material. Further, the apparatus may also include a printing mechanism disposed within the housing and configured to print on the flexible material.
The apparatus of the present invention produces at least one continuous strip of tickets from the continuous flexible material by introducing additional lateral perforations between the pre-existing lateral perforations. A printing mechanism can add indicia to the tickets. A slicer can further divide the flexible material into a plurality of continuous strips of tickets. Thus, a strip of tickets will include both ticket perforations that define each ticket, and sectional perforations that define sections of tickets. The sectional perforations are the same as the pre-existing lateral perforations. Thus, it will be apparent that a section of tickets is the number of tickets that will span a section of the flexible material.
A method for making tickets according to the present invention includes loading a supply of a continuous pre-folded flexible material into a reservoir configured to hold the supply, perforating the flexible material by feeding it through a perforating assembly, and then re-folding the resultant tickets. The method can additionally include synchronizing the perforating assembly with the flexible material. The method can further include slicing the flexible material by feeding it through a slicing assembly, and printing on the flexible material by feeding it through a printing mechanism.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following descriptions and studying the various figures of the drawings.